For both he that sanctifies and those sanctified [are] all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
Hebrews has just called Jesus the leader of salvation, brought to glory through suffering. Now it says He and the people He saves are of one — so on what ground can the Son of God call sinful people family?
The word has a particular sense in this letter. It does not mean the inward change in a believer's character.
Christ by His finished work has set apart His people to God. That is what sanctification mainly means in this letter. It does not mean the work of the Spirit in our hearts — that is the sanctification of the Spirit. There is also the Father's sanctification, you might say, in His choosing us in Christ before the world was made. That would be sanctification according to the purpose of God. But the sanctification spoken of here is mainly the work of Christ. That work has cut us loose from Satan and sin forever, and set us before God as His ransomed people.
The wording is careful. Where the ESV says they "all have one source," older translations read "all of one," and that is the phrase these writers weigh. It does not say Christ and believers are one. It says they are of one.
This wonderful expression seems to point to this. Christ came into our position and bore the consequences. He has truly brought us into His position before God, as Man. So He and His own — the Sanctifier and the sanctified — are seen as one company before God. It is worth noting, though, that the Word of God never says of Jesus and of men that they are all one. It says that "He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all of one."
Some stretch the phrase to mean that Christ became one with the whole human race by being born. The verse itself blocks that reading.
If we say "of the same mass," we can push the expression too far. It would sound as though He and the others were of the same nature as children of Adam, sinners together. In that case He would have to call every man His brother. But He gives that name only to the children God has given Him, the "sanctified" ones. But He and the sanctified ones are all as men in the same nature and position together before God. When I say "the same," it is not in the same state of sin, but the contrary.
Commentators differ over what the "one" points to. Some read it as one Father.
Here is the "Firstborn among many brothers," and everything in the passage assures us that "of One" or "out of One" means "of one Father." Yet there is an infinite difference. So it is divine love in Him that makes Him recognise and welcome "brothers" like these. He is the divine Son; they are only human. He is the Sanctifier; they are the sanctified; yet He is not ashamed of them.
Others hold back from settling it.
I hold back from saying flatly that the "one" spoken of here refers to the Father, because that is not the general theme of this letter. Yet there is no doubt of a strong case that this may be just the meaning, for He speaks of them as His brothers.
The name belongs to a particular point in His history. He did not always use it.
You might suppose that no such fellowship could exist, since He is the Sanctifier and they are the sanctified. But it does exist: "That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers." He never called them that until He became a man. And even then He did not use the name in full until He was a man risen from the dead.
Because the relationship rests on His grace and not on any equality, the freedom He takes is not one we may take back.
They are of one Father — He by very nature and title, we by His infinite grace. By nature it would be impossible for Him to call us brothers. But through the power of His perfect salvation He is not ashamed to do so. Let us say it again: He does this in grace. For us to call Him "Brother" would be an unfitting abuse of that grace.
- Set apart. In Hebrews, "sanctified" means set apart to God by the finished work of Christ. It is not the Spirit's inward work in the heart.
- One company. He came into our position and brings His own into His position. So Sanctifier and sanctified stand before God together.
- Not everyone. The verse speaks only of the sanctified, the children God gave Him. It does not speak of the human race by birth.
- Not ashamed. The gap between the divine Son and human believers is infinite. That He still owns them is love, not likeness.
- Risen and spoken. He took the name "brothers" as a man, and used it fully as the risen Man. It is a grace He gives downward, never one we claim upward.
saying, I will declare thy name to my brethren; in [the] midst of [the] assembly will I sing thy praises.
Hebrews 2:12 puts Psalm 22 into the mouth of the risen Christ, proving the claim just made: He is not ashamed to call believers His brothers. Two things stand out — when He first spoke this way, and the picture of the Son singing among redeemed people.
Psalm 22 has two halves. The first describes the crucifixion, the second what follows it — and the voice changes between them.
It is a wonderful psalm. The first part is occupied with the cross, where our blessed Lord was made sin for us. At the very depth of His anguish you find Him forsaken by God and persecuted by men. His hands and feet are pierced as He is nailed to the cross. And yet, in the middle of all that, after the cloud of divine wrath has passed, we hear Him say that God has heard Him. And so He dies. After He has finished the work of redemption, giving up His spirit to the Father, you find a blessed contrast. It is no longer one who is forsaken, nor even one who has cried to God and been heard. Instead we hear a strong, sweet, mighty Voice telling out the praises of God among those whom He calls His brothers.
Commentators mark when Jesus first used this word of His disciples. It was not at His birth, but after He rose.
As God was not ashamed to be called the God of the fathers, so Christ is not ashamed — I do not say to be called Brother, but — to call us, the children, brothers. It is His relationship, which He nowhere extends to man as he is, nor even to His own disciples though born of God, until He rose from the dead. Before then the most He said was quite vague: "Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother." As risen, He sends the new message: "Go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"
The verse does not say what name He tells out. Writers answer it from the shift in language between the Old Testament and the New.
"Your name" — what name? When bearing sin He speaks of God. When looking on to deliverance, or in enjoyed relationship, the godly Israelite speaks of Jehovah. But in the New Testament, God remains God and must always be the Judge of sin. Father is the characteristic term of a relationship. The Son of God knew that relationship from eternity, and knew it just as truly as man — but in a truth and fullness that belonged to Him only.
That naming produces something in return.
He declares the Father's name to us, and He leads His brothers' praises to the Father. It is the declaration of the Father's name that produces worship in the hearts of His brothers, and this He presents to the Father as an offering.
The Psalm also speaks of praise "in the great congregation." Writers set that future scene apart from the one Hebrews applies to now.
The time had not yet come for Messiah's praise of God in "the great congregation." That is Judah and Ephraim in their full twelve tribes, when all the ends of the earth will also remember and turn to Jehovah. Verse 22 is plainly different. The Spirit who inspired the letter to the Hebrews applies it now. The truth of it came true that evening. Jesus came, though the doors were shut for fear of the Jews. He stood among the assembled disciples and said, "Peace be with you." The Psalm stresses the united praise of the assembly which Jesus Himself leads as "in the midst." He is in the midst wherever two or three are gathered to His name. How unbelieving, then, to doubt that He will lead our praise!
The song follows from the place He has brought His people into — the same place He now holds Himself.
Christ is singing the praises, but He raises the song of praise as the result of His own place and ours being the same. He comes and brings us into this place and says, I will sing in the midst of the assembly. He went down into the place of death and drank the cup of wrath. Then He comes out into all the blessedness of His Father's delight — not only as His eternal delight, but as having done the work for God. He comes out and tells us His name, and then says, "you must come and sing with me."
Our part is to be in tune with Him.
The degree to which we realise this joy, the sweetness and volume of the note we add, of course depends on our spiritual state. But no note that is not founded on the perfect peace and joy of redemption is at all in tune there.
The word here does not carry everything it carries elsewhere. Commentators differ on how much weight to give it, and one writer draws the line carefully.
In Hebrews we never find the body of Christ as such referred to. We have the church, but even when the word "church" occurs, it is the church quite generally, as in Hebrews 2:12, or viewed in the units that compose it — not at all in its unity.
- Cross first. The verse comes from the second half of Psalm 22. The forsaken Sufferer falls silent, and a strong voice rises once the work is done.
- Brothers second. He never called His disciples "my brothers" until He was risen. The relationship rests on redemption accomplished, not on His birth alone.
- The Name third. What He tells out is Father — the relationship He knew from eternity, now shared with those He calls His own.
- The song fourth. The declared name produces worship. He Himself leads it "in the midst," wherever two or three are gathered to His name.
- Our voice last. We do not start the song; we join it — and the note only rings true when it rests on the peace and joy of redemption.